January 21st 2007
Folks,
How very quickly and with ever increasing velocity, it seems, the months come and go. January has arrived and, now that I have been at this for over a decade, I am aware of how quickly time will pass between now and our first harvest day. While our calendar shows the days measured out evenly into perfect squares of time, my experience of the passing months defies such a measurement. Something about farming seems to cause my experience of the passage of time to have an inverse relationship to either the length of the days or, perhaps, the increase of active life that the warmer months bring; it is as if, as our fields and farm swell with the frenetic and abundant organisms of summer, all striving to grow and thrive during their all too short season, the chaotic motion of all of their molecules bouncing around drives the engine of time to faster and faster speeds.
Eleven seasons into this project it is amazing to me that, with all of your help, I have actually made my dream of earning my living as an organic farmer possible. In our neck of the woods, which is, actually, prairie, we are something of a rarity. It would be easy to just talk about how few organic vegetable growers there are in an 80 mile radius of our farm, something that was obvious to me when I first visited western MN, but the more troubling aspect of our “rarity” is how we are one of only a very few young families who are making a successful go of it as farmers and who have the luxury of being able to put our best ideas into practice. Rather than having to go into massive debt and farm larger and larger tracts of land using more and more chemicals, a choice that it seems many young families are smartly forgoing, we are able to farm a mere 1/10 of our acreage reserving the rest for wildlife and we are able to invest in technologies and people that we find not just the lesser of many evils but which seem to have a great integrity. When I first set out to learn about farming I was filled with the idea that, somehow, by growing organic vegetables, I was going to change the world. I suspect that I thought that big changes were imminent and I eagerly awaited them. Eleven years later I think I know a bit more about humanity and, many of the issues which I had hoped, and was naïve enough to believe, would be solved have only just begun to be addressed. And yet, while it would be easy to be discouraged, I am not. The big changes have not yet manifested themselves and, if I were to only look far away, to just our national and international news, I would be left with the idea that things were, perhaps, worse, as opposed to better, than they had been when I planted my first seed… and I must confess that this thought has passed through my mind. These years of farming have taught me, however, the importance of looking down as well as up and they have taught me the importance of very small things. Close to home, things have changed a great deal during this time. Where once there was a run down old house, likely gravity’s next victim, now a family of four has made their home. Where once only corn grew, now there are trees and prairie and ponds and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. In 1996 there were only a few brave organic farmers in the area, the pioneers of our movement. Now we have vineyards, and goat dairies, strawberry farms, orchards and egg farms. These farms are using less fuel and chemicals, are growing healthier food, and are pumping more money back into our rural economy than their conventional counterparts. While we are still, in the grand scheme of things, mere drops in the bucket, we are, in some small but significant way, changing the way our community views itself. We are presenting viable alternatives. These small changes, in and of themselves, are exciting to me but, additionally, I can also only assume that similar changes are taking place in small communities all over the world. Just this morning I read that 18% of the carbon dioxide emitted comes from industrial agriculture. Acre by acre and farm by farm we have the ability to help leave this planet better than we found it. Thank you for all of your support in helping us try to do so over the years.
The late fall and winter months have been mostly enjoyable. We managed a little family vacation and we all have been engaged in a wide variety of pursuits. Hazel is now in a school full time and has loved her multi-age classroom. She still seems interested in pursuing a career as rock-star but also seem to equally love painting and “literature”. Right now she is recovering from a tonsillectomy and, in my opinion, she is remarkably full of good cheer. It has been great fun to have the time this winter to volunteer in her classroom and it has reminded me how much love teaching. Arlo is growing quickly and has lost most of his baby fat. He seems especially interested in the study of mammals. He also likes playgrounds. Malena has been busy making music of various sorts and has had time to paint and do a bit of pottery. I, after a ten year break, have again started to build some furniture and, when not thus engaged, I have spent lots of time in the kitchen and have read several good books.